i think in this case its the slow pacing and the artist. sigh. here we go again.

heh, i was reading the g2 tpbk intro and it says the original US g1 run was cancelled since figures dipped just under 100k, geez XD

 

Did I say that? I was just pointing out that the sales figures showed that DWs books were bleeding readers like Dalarsco said they were.

I wasent drawing any conclusions on the relative performace of IDW's books, which I wont be doing for another few months since comparing books that are still within the initial sales fall window that all new comics have with ones that are almost a year into thier run isn't a valid comparison.

I'm expecting IDW's titles to find thier feet around 15 - 20 within the next 5 months or so. Anyone who thinks that Transformers has any more long term potential in normal market conditions then any other niche licenced title is kidding themselves in my opinion.

 

Yeah -- it's the weapon of choice on Cybertron, after all...

Well, the main reason I'm here is G2 and rare bits of really good fanfic.

However, I think it'd be interesting if Megs gets re-engineered into a handgun and gets to carry himself with a holo-avatar -- that'd be an effective disguise.

Other stuff in thread... G1? I'm a fan of Transformers, personally. Science fiction rather than nostalgia. G2 was the same characters. New characters are still sporadically appearing. The overwhelming majority of the old stuff doesn't stand up to scrutiny, but Furman and Budiansky had their moments and there was some quality voice acting.

I don't see how McDonough did himself any favours with the movie parroting -- some of the dropoff on the ongoing was the nostalgia bubble (that Dreamwave had created for 80s titles, essentially) evaporating, but the continual percentage drop in sales DW experienced is more telling than a simple unit fall.

With apologies to Mob, whose legwork I keep ripping off because he puts it in fewer words than I would...

http://www.transfans.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5181

And back to the issue... I'm enjoying the way this is going. I do think it's a shame we won't be getting Escalation alongside Stormbringer (my interest in crossovers and alt-universe stuff such as Evolutions just isn't that strong.)

It'd be interesting if Ratchet has in fact snuffed it...

Well, thumbs up for not disowning it, even if I agree with nothing you said.

 

What do you mean we won't be getting Escalation alongside Stormbringer? I'm pretty sure that we are.

 

It's not on the July solicitations, which has been confirmed by IDW. At one point they were hoping to fit in sixteen issues of main continuity this year, but it ran into scheduling problems (whether with creators, Diamond prelisting deadlines or simply not wanting it to compete with the Chuck Dixon "What if?" mini.)

The story for Stormbringer will overlap the timeline for the Infiltration (and presumably Escalation) arcs of the ongoing, yep.

 

So Stormbringer will replace Infiltration? So does that mean that it will be issues 7-11 of The Transformers, or will the series go on hiatus for 5 months?

 

I think it was mentioned Stormbringer is a new number 1. And I don't think it was set in stone that Escalation will be 7-11. I mean, I assume it is, I mean it just makes sense, but I thought I read a post on the IDW board where Chris Ryall mentions that Escalation might be a 1 as well.

 

If you find it again, toss me a link wouldya? We can warm up the VVH in the meantime...

 

Here we go, official March numbers:

74 TRANSFORMERS INFILTRATION #3 30,344 copies
89 GI JOE VS TRANSFORMERS VOL 3 ART O/WAR #1 26,561 copies
94 TRANSFORMERS BEAST WARS (IDW) #2 25,737 copies
104 TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS (IDW) #1* 24,104 copies


http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/8516.html

Last edited by Commander Shockwav on 04-19-2006 at 09:33 PM


It's interesting how when DW's sales were plummeting, naysayers said it was the quality of the product.

When IDW sales plummet, it's everything except the quality of the stories.  

 

No, haha, it's really the quality of the horrid story. And the horrid art.

 

Where's the plummet? Take a look at #1 and #2 sales for a range of other ongoing comics. There's consistent drop-off.

Haemorrhagic percentage falls continuing over the course of, what, nine or ten issues of an ongoing (I forget how many DW actually got out)... that'd be a plummet.

As for quality of story... DWG1v2 was considerably "better" than DWG1v1 -- but didn't sell as highly. X-Men outsells Watchmen. Etc.

 

DW got 10 out; in a little over a one year period. And for DW's sales while continually going down, this can also be attributed to the fact there were bankruptcy rumors long before issue 10 shipped. And the book was late, which unless you're the Ultimates hurts a books sales most times. Any numbers anyone can throw around won't change the fact the DW died because it was mismanaged.
And on the flip side, IDW is shitting out 4 to 6 covers a month and still getting less than average numbers.

I don't wanna be an IDW naysayer all the time, but this book is going to die if it doesn't pick up. It doesn't have good numbers now, and the numbers aren't going to increase. I'm willing to bet this book won't last past issue 10 either, unless the run gets interrupted a few times with Stormbringer, and after Escalation another Cybertron related mini.

I don't want IDW to lose the TF license, I just want them to put out a better book.

EDIT jesus, I had to fix up some spelling there, no more posting after 4 AM

 

See, this makes me wonder; if the IDW G1 book was brought out back in 2002 instead of the Dreamwave mini (yeah, yeah, I know, IDW wasn't around back then, but I'm talking about the general book itself), would it have done the same numbers?

*G.I. JOE was already relaunched back then and probably started the 80's nostalgia comic wave.
*People were looking at decompressed storytelling as the "new, cool way" to tell a comics story (and able to be kept-in-print TPBs later on), because Bendis' USM; Ellis' AUTHORITY, PLANETARY, etc. were popular--I'd guess comics people wouldn't be quite as irritated with the IDW book then compared to now.
*The art... I'm actually quite fine with it, but it's possible that another selling point of the first DW Transformers series was Pat Lee's art.

 

How many does IDW's other books do?

 

I'm looking at the Feb 2006 chart at http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/8384.html... Other IDW books on there include...

ANGEL OLD FRIENDS #3 (Of 5) at 13,057 est. copies...

30 DAYS O/NIGHT DEAD SPACE #1 (Of 3) at 9,921

SPIKE OLD WOUNDS ONE SHOT at 9,754

METAL GEAR SOLID SONS O/LIBERTY #4 at 5,774

SUPERMARKET #1 (Of 4) at 5,309

MASTERS O/HORROR #2 (Of 12) at 3,781

UNDERWORLD EVOLUTION at 3,322

KEEP #4 (Of 5) at 2,412

CHICANOS #4 at 1,674

 

wow those are measly numbers

 

I'd think... they're about par for really small companies. Especially when they get published at a time like this (DC revving up most of their mainline for Infinite Crisis and One Year Later, Marvel, after post-HoM and The Other, preparing for Civil War, etc). Just means that they'd have to try harder.

I guess that the slow pacing of Infiltration is probably the major point against it; Beast Wars was much tighter and probably could benefit from a little added pages. But that's just me.

 

They are getting well above average for a licenced book, Star Wars and Conan are the only other properties that regulalry shift more then 20 and they have allot more reason to then Transformers does.

 

Thats exactly what I was expecting. So, Transformers is a rather successful comic for IDW and selling more a month thanall of their other comics.

DOOOOOOOM! I think not. IDW publish niche comics, TF is one of them. Be grateful some shill company didn't pick up the license and CAN IT after issue 3.